The Peacemaker (1997 film)
| screenplay = Michael Schiffer | based on = | starring = | music = Hans Zimmer | cinematography = Dietrich Lohmann | editing = David Rosenbloom | distributor = DreamWorks Pictures | released = | runtime = 124 minutes | country = United States | language = | budget = $50 million | gross = $110.4 million }} The Peacemaker is a 1997 American action-political thriller film starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman and directed by Mimi Leder. It was the first film released by DreamWorks. While the story takes place all over the world, it was shot primarily in the Republic of Macedonia, with some sequences filmed in New York City, Philadelphia, and Bratislava. Plot In an Eastern Orthodox church in Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina, an unidentified man is murdered after being paged to meet someone outside. At a missile base in Russia, SS-18 ICBMs are being decommissioned. Ten nuclear warheads are loaded onto a train and sent to a separate site for dismantling. However, Russian General Aleksandr Kodoroff, along with a rogue tactical unit, kills the soldiers on board the transport train and transfers nine of the warheads to another train. Kodoroff then activates the timer on the remaining warhead and sends the transport on a collision course with a passenger train. Minutes later, the 500-kiloton warhead detonates, killing the survivors and delaying an investigation. The detonation immediately attracts the attention of the U.S. government. White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly believes that Chechen terrorists are behind the incident. U.S. Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Devoe interrupts her briefing to suggest that the crash and detonation were staged to hide the hijacking of the other warheads. A call to Devoe's long-time friend and Russian counterpart, Dimitri Vertikoff, adds credence to his hypothesis and he is assigned as Dr. Kelly's military liaison. Kelly and Devoe try to track the terrorists through an Austrian trucking company which is a front for the Russian Mafia. When the Mafia realizes they are U.S. government agents, they send thugs to kill them. Vertikoff, attempting to pay them off, is killed. Devoe kills most of the would-be assassins, and he and Kelly escape. Information from the trucking company shows that the nukes are bound for Iran. Spy satellites place the truck in a traffic jam in Dagestan, and Devoe uses a ruse to identify it. The satellite, tracking in real time, is able to verify its license plate. Stopped at a checkpoint, Kodoroff and his men kill the guards. Devoe then leads a special forces unit to stop them. Denied entry into Russian airspace, one of the helicopters is shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile battery, but the remaining helicopters are able to locate the truck carrying the warheads. A gunfight ensues in which Kodoroff is killed and the warheads are seized. Interrogation of the surviving member of the group reveals that one warhead was taken by another man. Further work on the information from the trucking company leads IFOR to a Sarajevo address. Inside is a video cassette of a Yugoslav named Dušan Gavrić. Gavrić disclaims any allegiance in the Yugoslav Wars ("I am a Serb, a Croat, and a Muslim"), but blames other countries for supplying weapons to all sides in the war. Dr. Kelly realizes he intends to bomb a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York City and the city goes into lockdown. Gavrić arrives in Manhattan with the Bosnian diplomatic delegation. A flashback shows that Gavrić wants to avenge the death of his wife and daughter, who were killed in Sarajevo. He and his brother are finally found by the NYPD. When his brother is killed by Devoe, a wounded Gavrić is followed into a parochial school and then a church. Devoe confronts Gavrić, who commits suicide, knowing that the bomb is set to go off in a matter of minutes and cannot be deactivated. With only seconds to spare, Dr. Kelly is able to remove a part of the explosive lens shell of the bomb, preventing the primary explosion from establishing critical mass within the plutonium core. The primary wrecks the church, but the warhead itself does not detonate. Devoe and Kelly both survive with minor injuries. Cast * George Clooney as Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe * Nicole Kidman as Dr. Julia Kelly * Marcel Iureş as Dušan Gavrić * Aleksandr Baluev as Gen. Aleksandr Kodoroff * Rene Medvešek as Vlado Mirić * Randall Batinkoff as Ken * Holt McCallany as Mark Appleton * Armin Mueller-Stahl as Col. Dimitri Vertikoff * Goran Višnjić as a Russian Sergeant * Michael Boatman as Lt. Beach * Carlos Gómez as Capt. Santiago * Sebastian Roché as German Backpacker Release Box Office The film earned $41,263,140 in the US and $69,200,000 elsewhere, bringing its total to $110,463,140. Critical Reception On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 39%, based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100 points, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. References External links * * * * Category:1997 films Category:1990s action thriller films Category:1990s chase films Category:American action thriller films Category:American chase films Category:American films Category:American political thriller films Category:Bosnian War films Category:Directorial debut films Category:DreamWorks Pictures films Category:English-language films Category:Films about nuclear war and weapons Category:Films about revenge Category:Films about terrorism Category:Films directed by Mimi Leder Category:Films set in Austria Category:Films set in New York City Category:Films set in Russia Category:Russian-language films Category:Serbo-Croatian-language films Category:Film scores by Hans Zimmer Category:Works about the United Nations Category:Works about diplomacy Category:Works about diplomats Category:Film scores by Harry Gregson-Williams Category:Film scores by Gavin Greenaway